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Emphatic Windies take Dhaka Bank Cup

Sunil Narine claimed three for 13 in seven overs which help guided West Indies to a comprehensive 177-run win over Bangladesh in the 2nd ODI, St George’s, Grenada, yesterday.

Brilliant bowling by the mystery man from T&T, Sunil Narine led the West Indies to an emphatic 177-run victory over Bangladesh in the second match of the three-match Dhaka Bank Limited Overs series in Grenada yesterday.

Bangladesh, chasing a victory target off 248 off 50 overs after half centuries from Chris Gayle and Darren Bravo had given the locals a par score, collapsed under the spin of Narine for 70—the lowest score ever in ODIs in Grenada. Narine grabbed three for 13 and Kemar Roach, three for 19, to cripple the visitors and got them lower than the previous lowest score off 77 made by Ireland against Sri Lanka in the 2007 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup.

Needing to build partnerships throughout their innings to mount the challenge, Bangladesh had to contend with men walking to and from the pavilion on a regular basis. Narine who copped the man of the match award broke the back of their batting, striking at double blow with the score on 57. Among his victims was Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim, who fell for six. Roach then joined him and the end was swift. Opener Tamim Iqbal was the best batsman with 37 off 50 balls, including five fours. The teams will now move on to St. Kitts for the third ODI on Monday to be followed by the lone T20 on Wednesday.

Earlier, Dwayne Bravo lost the toss under cloudy skies and was asked to take first strike. Kirk Edwards warmed up for WinTv’s curry duck competition tomorrow, by securing his ‘duck’ courtesy Al-Amin Hossain.

Gayle took a page out of the Keiron Pollard’s book, as he buckled down and when a ball was there to be dealt with, he dealt with it. He and the dapper Darren Bravo batted beautifully. On a pitch that was slow with inconsistent bounce, the two adapted and prevented a collapse, as was the case in the opening match. With the ball not coming nicely unto the bat, Gayle had to use brute power, as was reflected in his five sixes. He also struck three fours, before his dismissal for 58 off 67 balls. Bravo, on the other hand had to depend on timing took a bit longer to bring up his half century. The two added 88 runs for the second wicket off 19.2 overs. Mahmudullah had Gayle caught on the deep mid-wicket boundary and Sohag Gazi removed Bravo for 53. He negotiated 82 balls with two fours and one six.

With the foundation laid and given the slow nature of the track, Denesh Ramdin was sent in to work the ball around. The wicketkeeper/batsman continued his good work this season, as he counted 34 off 51 balls with one four, before he was dismissed. Lendl Simmons was finding it hard to find his groove. When Pollard walked in the deejay started playing Chronixx’s tune ‘here comes trouble’ and that is exactly what it was as white balls started flying into the crowd.

Pollard and Simmons rattled up a 50-run stand off 42 balls and any thoughts the tourists had off making inroads was wiped away. Pollard clobbered 26 runs off 20 balls with two fours and a six. While he gathered the runs, Simmons continued to struggle and the Bangladeshi spinners slowed the scoring down by taking the pace off their delieveries. With nine balls to go in the innings, Simmons finally fell for 40 off 61 balls with three fours.

Bangladesh came back well in the end and what looked like 300 at the halfway stage turned into 247 for seven at the end.